Today is September 26, Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time.
We read at today’s Mass, “Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ They said in reply, ‘John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’ Then he said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter said in reply, ‘The Christ of God'” (Lk 9:18-22).
Carlo once wrote, “Jesus could have easily performed his redemptive act in a less painful manner. He certainly did not lack for the means, systems, and methods to reach salvation without having to resort to suffering. But that is not what he chose. He chose Calvary. He chose the Cross, he chose humiliation, he chose the Passion.”
Carlo’s mother, Antonia, remembers that many who gathered at his funeral felt as though they were not at a funeral, but at a celebration. True, there were tears. Yet a light seemed to shine through the grief, as if heaven itself were making its presence known.
A new mission
When the priest spoke the final words of dismissal (“Go forth, the Mass has ended”), the bells of the church began to ring out at precisely noon. It felt like a sign, a proclamation that Carlo’s death was not an end but a beginning: his new life with God.
That day, prayers to Carlo began spontaneously. A woman with breast cancer was healed. Another, unable to have children, soon conceived after entrusting her desire for motherhood to Carlo’s intercession. Friends, classmates and strangers all began to ask his prayers, as though they instinctively knew he was already close to God. The Church teaches that the reputation for sanctity often springs from the faithful themselves, and in Carlo’s case, it began on the very day of his funeral.
His mother recalls a dream in which she and her husband walked up the aisle of a church, with all eyes upon them — not because of their own merit, but because of Carlo’s “yes” to Jesus. That yes continues to bear fruit, in graces and conversions flowing from his intercession. Even his burial site quickly became a place of pilgrimage, especially for young people.
Carlo’s funeral was not the end of his story. It was the moment heaven’s joy broke through earth’s sorrow, the spark of a new mission beginning.
Let us pray,
O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbor, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
*Unfortunately, we have had further technical issues with the video recordings of My Daily Visitor. Please enjoy the recovered audio for your daily prayer and reflection.
